After weeks or months of preparation and work, and a lot of money, you have finally finished your website. Content is in place, graphics are great, you’ve spread the word and networked it til you were blue in the face.
Now all that’s left is to sit back and watch the hits roll in, right? A couple of weeks down the line, the numbers aren’t in the thousands like you were expecting, and audience is moderate. Why isn’t your fabulous new website generating the leads and sales you anticipated?
This is just the beginning for any good company website. Unfortunately, many throw in the towel far too soon after being discouraged by modest viewing figures, where they should have powered on. You see, a good website is never finished, it is a constant work in progress. All too often you’ll come across business websites that started off strongly with plenty of new content, only for it all to trail off overnight, and this is a key mistake. But it’s more than just content: all of those measures you took in the early days to promote the site and drive traffic must continue if you want your website to reach its potential. So, here are some ways to get your site up to scratch.
Blog Content
Blog content is central to driving the numbers up with fresh material, but it doesn’t stop at just writing a blog. Make sure you upload new content with regularity – doing this on a particular day of the week will get viewers into the swing of things, and returning to you on a regular basis to see your latest installment. It’s very important that every new blog you upload is publicised through all your different channels, like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. You could even make the leap over to Vlogs (video blogs) and establish a company YouTube channel, or create a podcast. Again, doing this with regularity will help to develop your audience and bring viewers to expect your content and look forward to it. And don’t forget to allow them to subscribe to your content.
When it comes to getting the message out there, you have plenty of options for maximising your reach. Publishing your post to LinkedIn is an effective and cost-free option, as is emailing it out to your marketing list. Paid Facebook ads is a great way to attract new subscribers, and you don’t need to spend much to get results. Enlisting the services of an automated social media tool like MeetEdgar will take a little of the stress out of ensuring your content is regular, by allowing you to schedule automatic posts.
Once you have started making the most out of your blog content, you will start seeing the benefits of your work:
- Improved visibility in search engines for relevant keywords
- Building position of authority in the field
- Shareable content to send out through your networks
- Continually bring in new subscribers and leads through evergreen content
- Growing marketing list
- Platform for affiliate revenue stream
Landing Pages and Sales Pages
Landing pages are another key way to build your marketing lists, but are not always thought of when trying to boost a company website. A landing page is a section of your website that serves as a call to action, to draw in your audience and invite them to take part. Offering something in return is the best way to see results from landing pages, so consider, does your website offer free guides, training courses or checklists? If not, this is your next step, and it’s an important one.
Landing pages are very easy to put together on a CMS like Concrete5 or WordPress; alternatively, you can make one on a page building tool such as Clickfunnels or Leadpages. Free guides and the like can be done on any decent publishing tool (even Microsoft Word will do the trick), and once you have these features done, you have made a significant contribution to improving your website. Sales pages are very similar to landing pages, but their purpose is to attract sales rather than followers. However, they should be more substantial, and offer links to other pages of the site to allow customers peace of mind about the reliability of your company. Don’t forget to insert a CRM tool that can process payments to make the buying experience simple and hassle-free.
Of course, calls to action can seem a bit invasive on a site you are new to, so it would be wise to only push subscribed traffic towards them, as these viewers are already willingly engaged with you and your content and are far more likely to produce sales and figures. Don’t blindly push all traffic in your direction, as it will result in a lot of dead weight. Refine your following regularly to ensure nobody’s time is being wasted.
SEO Updates
Keeping your website relevant and up to date is an absolute must if you want it to make a real impact. So make sure you stay on top of your content, refresh it continually and keep an eye out for any hot topics in the media that you can exploit with new content.
Although simply adding content will help you establish your place and following, optimising your website for keywords is a crucial step to standing out from the rest and keeping it high in the search engines. Don’t forget the likes of meta tags, image tags and captions, as they all count. The majority of CMS systems come with inbuilt SEO tools that can help you to better optimise your site, so explore the options available to you and put them to good use. Once you’ve done all this, don’t forget to re-submit your site to Google Webmaster so that your latest content is indexed and bringing in optimal numbers.
Blogging has become a central figure in marketing a business, and often has the biggest impact of all marketing techniques. If you are serious about pushing your website and bringing in the traffic it is capable of achieving, regular and relevant content is an absolute must. Should you need any help with making it happen and breathing new life into your website, seek out the guidance of a professional who can ensure any changes you make will be worthwhile.
